Concordia University, Canada

The Concordia University Creative Reuse Centre

The Concordia University Centre for Creative Reuse (CUCCR) was founded by a Fine Arts student as part of their graduate research. The student reached out to Facilities Management to determine whether it would be viable to establish a centre for creative reuse at Concordia capable of diverting materials from inside Concordia’s waste-stream and offering them to the general community free of cost. Together, they applied for and secured funding to begin this project at Concordia.

Since its launch in 2017, each year the project has hosted one student artist-in-residence, supervised 6 interns, and engaged 25 dedicated student volunteers. Additionally, over 35 metric tons have been diverted from the landfill; over 18,000 people have used the centre; and over $380,000 in community spending has been saved. CUCCR has become a safe space for community learning, making, and material reuse. To date, it is still the only creative reuse centre in a Canadian university.

Top 3 Learnings

On-campus relationship-building has been essential to our success as a multi-purpose resource and community space within the university.

Piloting CUCCR as a partnership between a student researcher and university staff allowed for experimentation and innovation, ultimately leading to the successful institutionalization of the project. The student in question is now the university staff member responsible for management of the program.

Inviting student CUCCR coordinators on to university sustainability committees helped legitimize the project through its inclusion in sustainability planning and its positioning as a key stakeholder. CUCCR is now responsible for advancing key strategies of the university’s Sustainability Action Plan.